Video game industry sales sink 23 percent in U.S.
Video game industry sales in the U.S. dropped 23 percent to $863 million in May compared with $1.12 billion a year ago, according to a new report.
This marked the first time since August 2007 that monthly sales dipped below $1 billion, NPD Group said Thursday in its report.
The drop was felt across the board as gamers coughed up less cash for hardware, software, and accessories. Sales for hardware fell 30 percent year over year to $302.5 million. Software revenue was down 17 percent to $449 million, while sales of gaming accessories tumbled 25 percent to $112 million.
"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.
NPD blamed most of the decline on the lack of blockbuster games rather than the weak economy. The report noted that last year's sales were boosted by the launch of popular software titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV. Nintendo's Wii Fit also was a hot commodity in 2008.
"While there were some very strong new releases this month," Frazier said, "this month's top 10 games sold 2.6 million units combined, whereas last year the top 10 sold 3.7 million units. Again this illustrates how tough the comparisons are to last year."
Nintendo's Wii was the best-selling system in May at 289,500 units, though sales plummeted from last year. Microsoft's Xbox 360 found 175,000 new customers, a gain of 22 percent from a year ago. Sony brought up the rear, selling only 131,000 PlayStation 3 and 117,000 PlayStation 2 consoles.
Despite the sluggish sales, NPD has a positive outlook for the rest of the summer.
"Looking ahead to June, there are some promising games coming out this month between Sims 3 (PC), Prototype, Red Faction, Virtual Tennis, Ghostbusters, Transformers and Tiger Woods just to name a few," noted Frazier. "June comparisons are still likely to be tough, but the wide variety of new content could help reinvigorate things somewhat."
The May report followed NPD's analysis for April, which showed that video game sales had dipped 17 percent year over year.
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
Not even close!
When the iPhone has games of the calibre of great DS games like Pokemon, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., PNot to mention Nintendo has already sold over 100 million DS's , which blows total iPhone sales out of the water. In April alone over one DS's were sold in the US alone.rofessor Layton, Brain Age etc, than you can talk.
Plus the iPhone is a phone, not a console/handheld. That's like asking NPD to count games sales on Windows Mobile smart phones, Nokia smart phones, Blackberries etc. Heck NPD doesn't even count PC games sales when counting console/handheld games sales, even though PC games sales totally smoke any games sales on the iPhone.
Plus the iPhone's App Store is the home of shovelware anyways.
"Jeremy Liew, who works for Lightspeed Venture Partners, completed his own examination of the App Store?s worth, and came up with the number of twenty to forty-five million dollars. While this number is still substantial, it falls far short of the much touted one billion in profit."
http://www.techjackal.net/gadgets/2009/05/16/the-app-store-overrated/
The iPhone's App Store is vastly overrated.
As a previous 2-3 game a month purchaser, I am getting futher and futher away from taking the time and trouble to check for newer and non-clone games and in a short while will just stop looking at all and just restart playing the games I have. I don't buy a 1995 truck every year just because it looked good and drove well. I get a new vehicle because it is new and exciting with better looks and a better experiance to drive. Gaming companies seeen to have fallen into the same rut that the big three did. Producing a product that no one really wanted to buy. Killing bad guys is good, but I want more to do than just that. I want to biuld when I get tired of killing, I want my own place to call home and take off my armor, set my weapons down and put on some good clothes ans strut around town chatting with others and trading adventure stories. Bs it in space, or with swords, or rocket launchers I want it all in a game with a huge amount of land to explore and develop. Hard drive are bigger and better. Yet games have remained small. Give me more for the buck and I will buy again!
There's jack this year in may...
Sexist yes but would encouraging a new wave of females into the industry help that's the million dollar question It worked to rejuvenate the use of cars loads of times in the last century much to manufactures disbelief at first.
Go go Femsys it'll get there one day and yes many 3D cake printers will be bought Hewlett Packard.
Many salespeople call and keep calling. If they get through, they'll go right into making their presentation and include a few trial closes and manipulative techniques. They are driven to make so many presentations, because then there are better chances to close more deals. I'm serious, there must be millions of salespeople out there leaving their income to chance, winging it month after month.
Why can't companies see that these classic "data dumps" as described above are mediocre at best at increasing sales and building long-term loyal customers. Why? Because no relationship has been established. If you sell a $10,000 item, you better have a $10,000 relationship when you ask for the order.
Wake up people. "Data dumps" come from product training, not sales training. Manipulative tricks and tips come from technique training, not sales training. It's not about what you sell or who sells it, but how you sell it. Sometimes you can hire a true sales professional but more often than not, you have to work with who you've got. So stop focusing on the product first and start teaching them to sell by walking arm-n-arm with the customer as each buying decision is made. There are only five of them you know. As a sales manager, do you know them? You should. And your salespeople only need to know five skills. The critical selling skills that have the greatest impact on gaining customer commitment. Do they know how and when to use them or do they wing it? If they're calling on their prospects "just to see how it's going", then their winging it.
If your salespeople master these five critical skills, you'd see record breaking sales. Your salespeople would know how to sell value over price. That means they'd protect your margins. They'd know how to ask the best questions and your customers would stop shopping your competitors because a relationship has been established on value and trust. I've seen it consistently, over and over again.
What I'm talking about is the Action Selling Process. Google it if you're interested. If you find something better or a program that's easier to follow with the same results, by all means let me know. We all need to make the best at the fewer sales opportunities we have these days.
Regards
A good sales person isnt going to make a poiece of $hit title game any better. It works with vacuum cleaners and cars, not games. Besides, many games are digitally distributed, how do you sell through that better? What, prettier ads?
No.
360 May sales were actually down 6.22% from a year ago, when 186,600 360's were sold.
May was the the Wii's lowest sales month since January of 2008, when Nintendo was hamstrung by supply constraints.
The Wii's YTD is finally down from last year as a whole
Wii :
First 5 months of 2009 :2.66 million
First 5 months of 2008 :2.82 million
-160,000(-5.67%)
360 :
First 5 months of 2009 : 1.38 million
First 5 months of 2008 : 1.12 million
+258,800 +23%
PS3:
First 5 months of 2009 : 0.96 million
First 5 months of 2008 :1.41 million
-456,100(- 32%)
May 2009 Vs May 2008
Wii -57.12%
PSP -44.93%
PS3 -37.23%
PS2 -11.83%
360 -6.22%
NDS +39.97%
Only the DS increased year on year from May 2008 to May 2009.
May 2009 Vs April 2009
NDS -39.09%
PS2 -31.98%
Wii -14.85%
PSP -13.45%
360 +0.00%
PS3 +3.15%
Only the PS3 increased from April to May 2009.
For May:
HD consoles(PS3 + 360): 306,000
Wii : 289,500
The HD consoles outsold the Wii for the first time since December 2008, by 16,500
The Wii is going to end this year selling considerrably less than it did in 2008.
If the PS3 gets it's romoured price cut in August, I am gonna be expecting the PS3 to start outselling the Wii from August.
A 360/Halo 3 ODST bundle in Sepetmebr is also likely to send 360 sales over Wii sales.
And you think adding females to the programming ranks will change this? What makes you think the more intelligent sex is going to want to be bothered with your make-believe world?
ROFLMAO
- by betelgeuse68 June 20, 2009 11:32 PM PDT
- Probably just as well... clear all the dead weight game studios putting out garbage. For example, did "Vampire Rain" ever really need to be made?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(20 Comments)And let's not forget the much maligned "Too Human" which got a lukewarm reception a couple of years ago at E3, yet Silicon Knights, its creator, decided to sue Epic claiming the "Unreal Engine" which it licensed to make "Too Human" didn't do what they wanted (create an awesome game people will like?). It all didn't seem to be sufficient feedback for Silicon Knights, as in, "your game sucks." No shock, I saw "Too Human" at the bargain bin at Fry's Electronics yesterday.
There's too much crap (especially on the Wii) chasing too few dollars.
-M